Calgary family trades in spacious home for tiny house

A Calgary family is building a tiny new abode on wheels that holds roughly 300 square feet of living space.

Kirsten Shaw and Michael Hunt plan to pull up stakes in Calgary in the spring and drive with one son through the United States for a year.

"I think I'll manage better than I am right now in 2,200 square feet because quite honestly I am not a homemaker. It stresses me out that I have all that dusting and everything to look after," said Shaw.

The wooden structure is being built on a five-ton flatbed truck and will tow a utility trailer behind with a kitchen and a sleeping area.

"There's going to be a sleeping loft above the cab and then two sleeping bunks, which will also have the seat belts in it, and it's going to have a bathroom and then the TV and video games and all that stuff for the kids," said Shaw.

With the addition of Hunt's kids, who only live with their father part of the time, the little house will be home to six people.

"My three kids will come on vacations and weekends and stuff like that," said Hunt.

Graham Livesey, a professor of environmental design at the University of Calgary, says the trend to living smaller isn't catching on here as fast, although some are considering it for recreational properties.

"I think we do need to reduce our environmental footprint. Particularly with North Americans, we occupy the most space when it comes to our residences and we use the most stuff and certainly I think it would be good to see a serious trend towards downsizing," he said.　

Hunt and Shaw plan to eventually move the tiny home to a permanent spot on Vancouver Island. They are currently documenting the process of building the little house on the Facebook page Tiny House Calgary.